Today, I want to read through three separate, but related, episodes in Exodus. Each of these three, by themselves, would make a great devotional, or sermon. There's something in each of them that is worth stopping, and just thinking about. But when we combine them, like I think we are supposed to, the end result is absolutely amazing (and this is a great example of how a literary/narrative approach to the Bible is helpful).
Before we jump in, we need to backtrack just a bit, to remind ourselves of where we are. Let's turn to Exodus 32:9-10, and read God's response to the golden idol:
(9) and Yahweh said to Moses,
"I have seen this people,
and LOOK! A people hard of neck, it [is],
(10) and so then, Give rest to me,
that my anger may burn against them,
and that I may consume them,
and that I may make you into a great people/nation,
So God had this three part plan, to burn in anger against Israel, to consume them, and to start over with Moses.
But Moses persuaded God to not carry out his plan in its entirety.
That doesn't mean that He wasn't still angry. That doesn't mean the covenant made through Moses is still valid. That doesn't mean that the path forward for God and Israel, is straightforward. When people enter into a covenant, and one of them is unfaithful, the future is murky (we are working our way toward Exodus 34:10, but we are definitely not yet there).
So we shouldn't assume everything is okay.
Now, let's skip down to Exodus 32:33:
(32:33) and Yahweh said to Moses,
"Whoever sinned against me, I will blot him out of my book (Rev. 3:5),
(34) and so then, Go lead the people to where I have spoken to you.
LOOK! My angel/messenger shall go before you,
and on the day of visitation/punishment, I will visit/punish upon them their sin,"
(35) and Yahweh struck/plagued (same verb as Exodus 12:23) the people
because they made the calf that Aaron made.
What we saw, at the end of last week's passage (and I deliberately ignored this part), was God setting out a path forward for Israel. In the midst of the talk about sin, and punishment, we get this hopeful note in verse 34. The people will still get to go to the promised land. And God will send his messenger before them. There is still a future for Israel.
Does this mean everything is okay?
We continue this week, starting in Exodus 33:1-3:
(1) and Yahweh said to Moses,
"Go! Ascend from this place-- you and the people who you brought up from the land of Egypt--
to the land that I swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, saying,
"To your seed I will/shall give it,"
and I will/shall send before you a messenger/angel,
and I will/shall drive out the Canaanites, the Amorites, and the Hittites, and the Perizzites, the Hivites and the
Jebusites,
(3) to a land flowing with milk and honey,
but I will not go up in your midst,
because a people stiff/hard-necked, you [are],
lest I finish/consume/destroy you on your way/road,"
What we see in these verses, is that the relationship between God and Israel is still broken. It's not back to what it was. So Yahweh will still send his messenger before them, but He will not himself personally go. There is a chance, if He goes with them, that He will still consume all of them (same verb as initially) on the way. I don't think this means he's still angry with everyone. But what I think, is that God is acknowledging that Israel's basic character hasn't changed. They are still a stiff-necked people. God hasn't done anything about that (Ezekiel 36:26-27), and neither have they. And so things have to be different, from this point forward. God had planned to dwell among his people in the tabernacle. That's what the entire covenant pointed toward, as the goal. And that's been lost. God will only send his messenger, and that messenger will stay out in front of the people-- not in their midst.
Verse 4-6:
(4) and the people heard this evil/harmful word,
and they mourned,
and no one put on their ornaments/jewelry upon themselves,
(5) and Yahweh said to Moses,
"Say to the sons of Israel,
'You [are] a people of stiff/hard neck.
[If] one moment I would go up in your midst, I would finish/consume/destroy you,
and so then, take off your ornaments/jewelry from upon yourselves,
that/and I will know what I should/will do about you,"
(6) and the sons of Israel stripped off their ornaments/jewelry from Mount Horeb, onward.
We should see three things in these verses. The first, is that the people rightly mourn. They've lost their chance to have God live among them. They will be missing out on God's greatest blessing. So they do well to mourn.
The second, is that the people take off their jewelry, as a sign of their mourning. The people, and God, understand that when you are mourning your sin, that you shouldn't look like you're going to prom.
The third, and most important, is in verse 5. God is still thinking about, still working out, what He's going to do with Israel. From God's perspective, there are questions.
This is another one of those verses we struggle to believe. But from God's perspective, His relationship with Israel is still unsettled.
This brings us to verses 7-11. Here, Exodus backtracks, and paints us a picture of how things used to be, before the golden calf. This is how the relationship used to look, between God and Moses, and God and Israel:
(7) Now, Moses would take the tent,
and he would pitch it outside of the camp, far off from the camp,
and he would call it "The Tent of Meeting,"
and then, everyone seeking Yahweh would go out to the Tent of Meeting,
which [was] outside of the camp,
(8) and then, whenever Moses went out to the tent, all the people would rise,
and each one would stand at the opening of his tent,
and they would watch after Moses until he went to the tent,
(9) and then, whenever Moses went to the tent, the pillar of cloud would descend,
and it would stand at the opening of the tent,
and He would speak with Moses,
(10) and all the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the opening of the tent,
and all the people would rise,
and each one would worship/bow down at the opening of his tent,
(11) and Yahweh spoke to Moses face to face,
just as a man would speak to his friend/neighbor,
and he would return to the camp,
while his servant Joshua, son of Nun, a young man, wouldn't leave from the midst of the tent.
Christians tend to think that OT spirituality was somehow less than our own. We tend the OT is about legalism, and following rules. We tend to argue that Israel had a religion, but WE have a relationship with God.
If we had tried to teach this to Moses, he would've been shocked. Moses would've asked us, "Have you never read Exodus 33?
Moses, as a regular way of life, would set up a tent far off from camp. God never told him to do this, as far as we know. Moses did this on his own initiative. He set it up. He gave it its name-- "The Tent of Meeting."
Why?
Moses knew that in the OT, God wanted to have a real relationship with his people. God didn't just desire his people's obedience. God desired them.
And in the OT, God didn't just speak through the Bible. God didn't just open his mouth, when his people opened their Bibles. In the OT, anyone could go out to the tent, seeking God, and God would show up. All the time? Sometimes? It doesn't say. But Moses assumes that if you are genuinely seeking God, then God genuinely desires the same thing-- God wants to meet with you, and spend time with you.
So Moses knew God's heart. He knew that if you build it, they will come. So what Moses did, of his own initiative, was create an opportunity-- a time and a place-- for people to go meet God. Moses himself took advantage of this on a regular basis (the yiqtol imperfective verbs point in this direction-- he "would do" this and that). Joshua basically lived out there [and perhaps part of the reason things fall apart after Joshua, is no one else spent that kind of time at the Tent]. And the people?
We don't know. But the people had an open invitation to go seek God, and be with God. This isn't something only for Moses. This isn't something only for spiritual elites. This is the kind of thing that God seeks from all of his people.
If we manage to get over our NT bias, our reaction, reading these verses, is probably something like this: "How cool would it be, to be able to go off into the wilderness, and meet with God? Imagine finding a quiet place, away from smart phones, and the internet, and work, and social media, and just spending time one on one with God. Imagine going to a retreat, and having God go there as well." Imagine serving a God, who wants this, and is pleased by this.
The truth of the matter (to sound like my grandpa), is that many Christians have experienced nothing like this. Many people will argue that today, God speaks through the Bible. Period. They say that God wants to have a relationship with us, but they also say that this relationship is mostly found in the Bible. The Bible, and not the Holy Spirit, takes center stage. We know God through the Bible. God speaks to us through the Bible. And that's it.
People who take this position have to read these verses with a sense of pain, and emptiness, and sadness. "God's people used to have it really good. It used to be, that God would meet people, one on one, when they would seek him out. It used to be, that this was something that God desired."
There was a time, when I held pretty close to this position. I never heard God's voice, except maybe when my Bible was open. I'd read a book that talked about listening to God (by Joyce Meyers) in college, that I found unpersuasive. When I tried the book out, it didn't "work." At Bethel Seminary, I remember hearing a student one time saying that he hadn't figured out what to do his big term paper on, because God hadn't yet revealed to him what the topic should be. I overheard this, and privately scoffed. And another time, I completely ruined a Sunday school class on prayer (sorry Kalen), by trying to nip in the bud the idea that there is a type of prayer, that mostly involves listening. One of my lowest, most embarrassing moments.
But today, I no longer hold to any of that. I've eaten a lot of crow.
Today, I believe God's character, and desires, are unchanging. God still speaks. God still wants a relationship with his people, and that relationship still works in basically the same way (Romans 4:1-12). I believe that if you seek God out, you will find him-- and not just between the pages of the Bible.
I know several people who hear God's voice, much more clearly than I do. I struggle to be a good listener. But let me just encourage you-- this picture we see of the Tent of the Meeting, isn't just an OT thing. Read these verses with a sense of longing. Be filled with the desire to seek God. Have confidence, that God will meet you, if you do.
Now, let me just point out one last thing here. Moses sets out an open invitation to all the people, to go meet God. But when Moses met with God, it was truly an event among God's people. If you were an Israelite, and you saw Moses leaving the camp, and heading toward the tent, you'd stop what you're doing, and watch. Because you knew when Moses met with God, that you'd see God's glory. [I don't think everyone got the pillar of cloud (Joshua apparently didn't, at least not all the time).] If you were an Israelite, you would understood that Moses had a close, intimate relationship with God. You would know, that this type of relationship was possible for all of God's people. But you'd also know, that it's not the type of relationship, that all of God's people have. Not everyone is Moses.
Now, why does Exodus put this story, right here?
Exodus paints this picture of how life used to be, between God and Moses, and God and Israel, because it's showing the opportunity that Israel lost.
What God had planned to do, was change where He could be found. He wouldn't be found in the "far distance." The tabernacle was going to be a place where you could seek God, from inside the camp. God would be close. God would be here. And as much as we like the idea of going on a spiritual retreat, to go be one on one with God-- and that's a valuable thing-- even better, would be is if God was already close (and even better still, would be if God lived in us).
So part of the reason why the people mourn, when they hear God's response, is that they understand what they are giving up. The tabernacle was supposed to be a Tent of Meeting, inside the camp. And that's been lost. So some things are going to be different, from here on out. And if you don't find yourself falling apart in tears over losing that, what else would you cry about?
In verses 12-17, we read Moses' response to this. Actually, what we read is a conversation between God and Moses. This is what it looks like when God speaks to people face to face, as you'd speak to a friend. Let's inch our way through this, verse 12:
(12) and Moses said to Yahweh,
"Look! You are saying to me,
(a) 'Bring up this people,
(b) while you haven't revealed who you will send with me,
(c) while you said, 'I have known you by name,
(d) and, what's more, you have found favor in my eyes,'
Moses' request here is complicated, and I'm not sure I'm going to successfully teach this. Everyone hold up four fingers. What Moses is doing here, is holding up four fingers-- four separate things. I've marked them "a b c d" in the translation. And these four things, put together, don't make sense.
God has commanded Moses to bring up this people, to lead them into the promised land.
At the same time (while,), in (b), God hasn't revealed who He will send with Moses.
Now, maybe we read this, and we think about the messenger Yahweh just promised to send (we probably also find ourselves thinking about Aaron-- Moses had wanted someone to go with him to Pharaoh, but now he wants Someone better than Aaron). The messenger has the name of Yahweh inside of him. There's some sense in which he is Yahweh. But there's also a sense in which he isn't. If all Moses got was the messenger, God would be less present on the way, than He has been up to this point.
And also, let's turn back to Exodus 3:11-12 (NIV no reason):
11 But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?”
12 And God said, “I will be ("Yahweh") with you. And this will be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you[b] will worship God on this mountain.”
So we have these two fingers, "a" and "b." Moses then adds a third and fourth aspect to all of this (with another "while,"). Yahweh has told Moses, that He knows Moses' name, and that Moses has God's favor.
If God knows by Moses by name, and He's pleased with Moses, then why isn't God going with Moses? Why is God only going to send his messenger?
From Moses' perspective, these four things don't fit together. So Moses starts here, by pointing this out to God. [Perhaps we could say that Moses is trying to shift God's attention from Israel's stiff-neck, to Moses having favor].
In verse 13, Moses pushes forward:
(13) and so then, if, please, I have found favor in your eyes, reveal to me, please, your way/road,
that I may know you,
in order that I may find favor in your eyes,
and look/consider that your people, this nation [is]. ["your people" is focused],
What is God's "way"? I don't think it simply means, the way to the promised land. God has a path that He walks-- a path marked by holiness, and righteousness, and faithfulness. Moses makes it sound like this path is a bit hidden. Or, perhaps, it's a bit tricky to find. Moses asks God to show him where this path is, and what it looks like. If you know God's path, you can walk the same road God walks. And if you know that path, you can find God.
The most remarkable thing about these verses, is that Moses doesn't think that he's climbed the summit, spiritually. Even after eating a meal with God, and being at the summit with God for 40 days, Moses doesn't think he fully knows God. Even after receiving the details of this new covenant, he still thinks that God's way isn't fully revealed. There is more. And so Moses is still seeking more of God, and more of God's favor (again, Luke 2:52).
Moses then adds to that, another little note about Israel. The way forward for God and Israel is still murky. God is still working out how things will have to be, from this point forward. And so Moses just encourages God here, to still consider Israel to be "his people." Moses has God's favor. Israel, does not.
In verse 14, we read God's response (and C.H. Wright was absolutely brilliant in here-- a great close reading of the text, that rescued me):
(14) and He said,
"My face/presence (plural?) shall walk/go, ["with you" isn't in the Hebrew]
and I will give rest to you (singular),"
Moses wanted someone to "go" with him. And God here, responds by saying two things.
First, God promises that He will "go." God isn't going to stay at the mountain. He will go. He will move. Now, God isn't promising that He will go "with Moses." I think we are supposed to see a gap here. Maybe God meets Moses halfway.
The second thing God promises, is that He will give Moses-- and Moses alone-- rest. Maybe, this means that God will give Moses his peace, and make it so Moses doesn't worry.
I'm not sure exactly how to explain verse 14. But what we see, for sure, is this: God is not giving Moses everything that Moses wants.
In verses 15-16, we get Moses' response:
(15) and he said to Him,
"If your face/presence (plural!?) isn't going (plural!?), may you not bring us up from here,
(16) while how will it be known that I have found favor in your eyes-- I, and your people?
Is it not by your going with us?, ["with us" is in the Hebrew here]
that we may be distinguished -- I and your people-- from every nation that is upon the face of the land?,
Moses understands that God is holding back. And so Moses pushes back. The thing that should mark Israel off as unique, above all else, is not just the Bible (Deuteronomy 4:6-7; h/t. J. Gerald Janzen). It's God's presence (Exodus 19:5-6). When all other nations find themselves passing through Israel, that's what they will notice. Yahweh, the God of heaven and earth, lives among the Israelites.
And so Moses asks God to go "with us." For Moses, it's not enough that God goes ahead of the people, or that He stays a careful distance away [like going on family vacation, but taking two cars]. Moses wants God to do the thing that God said he absolutely wouldn't do. God had said, Israel is a stiff-necked people, and He won't go up in their midst, lest he consume them.
But Moses asks, again, that God would go with them. What Moses is asking for, basically, is the Tabernacle-- that God would dwell among his people.
In verse 17, we read God's response:
(17) and Yahweh said to Moses,
"What's more, this matter/word that you have spoken [about], I shall do,
because you have found favor in my eyes,
and I know you by name."
We started today, with the future of God and Israel being an open question. We wondered if there was a path forward, after Israel broke the covenant. We wondered if things would have to be different, from here on out.
And God told the people, in fact, that things would be different. God wouldn't go up in their midst. He would only send his messenger to lead them.
But now?
We end verse 17, with almost everything back on track. God will still consider Israel to be his chosen people. They will be a kingdom of priests (Exodus 19:6), "distinguished from" (Exodus 9:4; Exodus 11:7) every other nation in the world.
And why will God do all of this? Why does God backtrack, and alter his plan?
Exodus tells us. God does this for two reasons: first, because Moses has found favor in his eyes. Second, because God knows Moses by name (and perhaps that's part of what it means to be written in God's book-- it's like his telephone directory).
God does this, because of Moses.
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I started this series, many weeks ago, by talking about power. Moses lived in a place of spiritual power, and God used him to do mighty wonders. I want to have that kind of life. Not for myself. Not for my own glory. I want to be useful, and I want to be used to advance the kingdom. For that, you need power (Acts 1:7-8).
Now, the logical place to turn, if you want that kind of life, is maybe the book of Acts. Right? If we are filled with the Holy Spirit, we are empowered for ministry. I believe that this is absolutely true. But perhaps the book of Acts is not the entirety of the answer, of how you are empowered.
Maybe a year ago now, I had this "sense"-- a "feeling"-- that Exodus would point me in the right direction. I felt like I was missing something, and when I feel that way, it often seems like the missing piece is in the OT. We use a third of our Bibles, and sometimes the answers we seek, are in the part we don't use so much.
All of you can decide how big of a deal you want to make about Exodus 33:17. But from my perspective, this entire study has been building up to this moment-- to verse 17. A year of study, culminates in this verse. And I had no clue.
Moses had favor in God's eyes. Moses was the kind of person God knows by name. Moses was the kind of person who, when he goes to seek God, and spend time with God, God shows up with a pillar of cloud. Whenever Moses spent time with God, it was an event for Israel as a whole.
When we look at Moses' life, we can see why. Moses had a heart for the oppressed-- he was their defender (Exodus 2:12, 17). Moses was consistently faithful, and obedient. He risked his life, repeatedly, by going to Pharaoh, trusting that God would protect him. He mediated between God and Israel. But above all of that, perhaps, is that Moses was the type of person who spent time in the tent, seeking God.
If you seek God, God will reveal himself to you. He will speak to you. You will hear his voice, whether or not your Bible is open. He will lead you, through his Spirit. And as you do this consistently, without backsliding, without turning to idols, you'll find that you increasingly view the world the way that God does (Exodus 32:19). You will become a better partner with God (2 Corinthians 13:14). A better co-worker. And you will, in every increasing measure, grow in God's favor (Luke 2:52).
So I started all of this, several years ago, by focusing on the wrong thing. I wanted spiritual power. This is a good desire. It's God-given. But spiritual power isn't the kind of thing you seek directly. Power comes, as a result of favor. It comes out of an intimacy with God.
I assume that some of you are like me. You struggle to hear God's voice. You struggle to be led. And perhaps you're like me, and you've tried, and seen nothing. Heard nothing. And so you closed the book on all of that.
I assume that all of us are in different places, when it comes to seeking God, and seeking to truly know God. For some of us, it's more important than for others. God has revealed his way more clearly to some of us, than others. Which is okay, for now.
But let's say you read this passage, and you find yourself longing to be Moses. You want to seek God. You want to meet God. You want a close, intimate relationship with God, where God speaks to you, as you'd speak to a friend.
If God still desires to have this kind of relationship with his people, where do you start?
At the bottom of the translation handout, you'll see three books listed. I'll be honest. I've only read one of them in its entirety so far. But I think all of these are great books. They will point you in the right direction.
The first, is by Scot McKnight, Open to the Spirit. In my experience, this is a book that "works." When one of my kids was reading that book, she was opened up to the Spirit. And God touched her, and healed her, as she read it. It's a good book, written by a brilliant scholar.
The second, is by Mark Virkler. 4 Keys to Hearing God's Voice. For some family friends of ours (hi!), this book completely opened them up to hearing God. On a regular basis, as a normal part of their Christian life, God speaks to them.
The third, is by Mark Batterson. Whisper: How to Hear the Voice of God. I was on Amazon one day, looking for a book on this subject. Amazon's algorithm knew I'd like the book, and recommended it to me. And when I clicked the link, I immediately started buzzing in the Holy Spirit. I'm only 60 pages in, so far, but I assume that God likes this book.
Let me just encourage you, that these three books would be a great investment. And if you press in to this, I'd love to hear your testimony of how it goes :)
Translation:
(1) and Yahweh said to Moses,
"Go! Ascend from this place-- you and the people who you brought up from the land of Egypt--
to the land that I swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, saying,
"To your seed I will/shall give it,"
and I will/shall send before you a messenger/angel,
and I will/shall drive out the Canaanites, the Amorites, and the Hittites, and the Perizzites, the Hivites and the Jebusites,
(3) to a land flowing with milk and honey,
but I will not go up in your midst,
because a people stiff/hard-necked, you [are],
lest I finish/consume/destroy you on your way/road,"
(4) and the people heard this evil/harmful word,
and they mourned,
and no one put on their ornaments/jewelry upon themselves,
(5) and Yahweh said to Moses,
"Say to the sons of Israel,
'You [are] a people of stiff/hard neck.
[If] one moment I would go up in your midst, I would finish/consume/destroy you,
and so then, take off your ornaments/jewelry from upon yourselves,
that/and I will know what I should/will do about you,"
(6) and the sons of Israel stripped off their ornaments/jewelry from Mount Horeb, onward.
(7) Now, Moses would take the tent,
and he would pitch it outside of the camp, far off from the camp,
and he would call it "The Tent of Meeting,"
and then, everyone seeking Yahweh would go out to the Tent of Meeting,
which [was] outside of the camp,
(8) and then, whenever Moses went out to the tent, all the people would rise,
and each one would stand at the opening of his tent,
and they would watch after Moses until he went to the tent,
(9) and then, whenever Moses went to the tent, the pillar of cloud would descend,
and it would stand at the opening of the tent,
and He would speak with Moses,
(10) and all the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the opening of the tent,
and all the people would rise,
and each one would worship/bow down at the opening of his tent,
(11) and Yahweh spoke to Moses face to face,
just as a man would speak to his friend/neighbor,
and he would return to the camp,
while his servant Joshua, son of Nun, a young man, wouldn't leave from the midst of the tent.
(12) and Moses said to Yahweh,
"Look! You are saying to me,
'Bring up this people,
while you haven't revealed who you will send with me,
while you said, 'I have known you by name,
and, what's more, you have found favor in my eyes,'
and so then, if, please, I have found favor in your eyes, Reveal to me, please, your way,
that I may know you,
in order that I may found favor in your eyes,
and look/consider that your people, this nation [is]. ["your people" is focused],
(14) and He said,
"My face/presence shall walk/go,
and I will give rest to you,"
(15) and he said to Him,
"If your face/presence (plural!?) isn't going (plural!?), may you not bring us up from here,
(16) while how will it be known that I have found favor in your eyes-- I, and your people?
Is it not by your going with us?,
that we may be distinguished -- I and your people-- from every nation that is upon the face of the land?,
(17) and Yahweh said to Moses,
"What's more, this matter/word that you have spoken [about], I shall do,
because you have found favor in my eyes,
and I know you by name."
